Setting Seasons

Seasons need not be spelled out obviously. Get creative, visual and active! Try writing them with seasonal nouns and random verbs. For example:

The rain clouds blew in, washing the daffodil petals, pulling them free and dropping them to the soil.

The Christmas tree leaned toward the window as if to say, back away!

She shook the sand from her sandals, kicked them off and stepped onto the cooling tile floor in the entry.

It was a still morning with frost dripping from the abandoned clothesline.

Published authors also use this practice to place us visually “in the season”. Pats on the back all around!

“There was a quarter moon sending a white shaft of light through the open window, It wasn’t too cold, just cold enough to make you pull the covers to your chin and let the fresh air hit your face.” Catherine Coulter in The Target p. 93

“The early morning dampness clung to the shrubs like pave’ diamonds set in malachite.” Sue Ann Jaffarian in Too Big to Miss, p.160

“… a white sifting of frost lay like lace over the raw sides of th opengrave.” Karen Robards in Walking After Midnight, p.64

“(Garden leaves) after a few days of being red and gold..” Diane Johnson in Le Divorce, 93

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Adding to the flavor of your seasonal thinking: From Yiyun Li’s The Vagrants:

“How many miles of river melting and how many trees of blossoms blooming would it take for the season to be called spring? But such naming must mean little to the rivers and flowers, when they repeated their rhythms with faithfulness and indifference.”